Biography
Heather Engebretson is a Juilliard graduate, an award-winner at the renowned Savonlinna Opera Festival as well as a special-award-winner at the “Hans Gabor Belvedere” singing competition in Vienna. In addition to her first opera achievements in the USA, she sang Schubert’s G Major Mass at the Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium as well as Bach’s Magnificat at the Alice Tully Hall in New York.In Germany, she joined the soloist ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover in 2013. By the season of 2014/15, she changed to the Staatstheater Wiesbaden where she is a welcome guest until today and where she performed the roles of Violetta/La Traviata, Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni, Konstanze/Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Oscar/Un ballo in maschera, and Euridice in Orpheus and Eurydike. In the season 2016/17 Heather Engebretson was a member of the ensemble of the Staatsoper Hamburg, performing, among other roles, Musetta in La Bohème.
Furthermore, guest engagements include the title role of Katie Mitchell’s production Alcina under the baton of Andrea Marcon at the Bolshoi-Theater and at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Four Women in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Königin der Nacht/Die Zauberflöte at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Mimì/La Bohème at Berlin’s Komische Oper, Barbarina/Le nozze di Figaro, Sophie in Massenet’s Werther, as well as Waldvogel in Keith Warner’s Ring under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Liù/Turandot at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, as well as Donna Anna/Don Giovanni in Cagliari.
On the concert stage, Engebretson’s most recent guest performances were with the Dresden Philharmonic in Messiah, in Carmina burana with the Dortmund Philharmonic, the soprano part in Mahler’s Symphony no 2 with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and the soprano part in Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 with the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra.
In season 2019/20 Heather Engebretson returned to the Deutsche Oper Berlin performing the Four Women in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, as well as to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Sophie/Werther under the baton of Edward Gardner. In addition, she embodied Donna Anna/Don Giovanni at Opera Frankfurt and Beethoven 9th with the Hamburger Symphoniker and with Guillermo García Calvo at the conductor’s stand in Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle.
Engagements in recent seasons include the title roles of Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly at Oper Frankfurt and Strauss' Salome at Theater Basel. In addition, she was also heard in the four female roles in the Contes D'Hoffmann as well as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at the Hessisches Staatstheater. In Milan she sang Beethoven's Ninth under the musical direction of Thomas Guggeis.
In the upcoming 23/24 season, Engebretson will make her role debuts as Manon Lescaut at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and as Elsa in Lohengrin at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden. She will also sing Liu in the new production of Turandot at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden.
Artist Website
www.heatherengebretson.comManagement
General ManagementArtist Manager

Boris Orlob
Managing Director
boris@orlob.net
Mobil: +49-172-8 51 55 14
Repertoire
Repertoire Concert
Bach, J.S. | Magnificat |
Beethoven | Missa Solemnis |
Brahms | Ein deutsches Requiem |
Fauré | Requiem |
Händel | Messiah |
Orff | Carmina Burana |
Strauss, R. | Vier letzte Lieder |
Verdi | Requiem |
Repertoire Opera
Adams | Nixon in China | Chiang Ch'ing |
Bellini | La sonnambula | Amina |
Berg | Lulu | Lulu |
Berlioz | Béatrice et Bénédict | Héro |
Britten | The Turn of the Screw | Flora |
Donizetti | L'elisir d'amore | Adina |
Lucia di Lammermoor | Lucia | |
Gounod | Roméo et Juliette | Juliette |
Handel | Alcina | Alcina |
Humperdinck | Hansel and Gretel | Gretel |
Massenet | Manon | Manon |
Werther | Sophie | |
Mozart | Die Entführung aus dem Serail | Konstanze |
Die Zauberflöte | Königin der Nacht | |
Pamina | ||
Don Giovanni | Donna Elvira | |
Donna Anna | ||
Zerlina | ||
Idomeneo | Ilia | |
Offenbach | Les contes d'Hoffmann | Antonia, Olympia, Giulietta, Stella |
Puccini | Gianni Schicchi | Lauretta |
La Bohème | Mimi | |
Musetta | ||
Turandot | Liù | |
Strauss, R. | Arabella | Fiakermilli |
Zdenka | ||
Ariadne auf Naxos | Zerbinetta | |
Echo | ||
Najade | ||
Stravinsky | The Rake's Progress | Anne Trulove |
Verdi | La traviata | Violetta |
Rigoletto | Gilda | |
Un ballo in maschera | Oscar | |
Wagner | Das Rheingold | Freia |
Woglinde | ||
Götterdämmerung | Woglinde | |
Siegfried | Waldvogel |
Press
Salome / Theater Winterthur / 1.04.2023 / deropernfreund.de
"Geradezu unfassbar, ja regelrecht atemberaubend gestaltet Heather Engebretson die Titelrolle."
Madama Butterfly / Oper Frankfurt / 24.05.2022 / swr.de
"Eine wunderschöne, tonhöhensichere Stimme mit der Darstellungskraft einer Tragödin."
Madama Butterfly / Oper Frankfurt / 24.05.2022 / faz.net
"Heather Engebretson ist eine zarte Frau mit einer starken, dabei so leichten, selbst in den Ausbrüchen scheinbar mühelosen Stimme, die vor Panik zittern und voller Hoffnung leuchten kann."
Madama Butterfly / Oper Frankfurt / 27.05.2022 / kulturfreak.de
"mit großartiger Heather Engebretson in der Titelrolle"
Madama Butterfly / Oper Frankfurt / 22.05.2022 / musik-heute.de
"Heather Engebretson begeistert als Madama Butterfly"
Werther / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 20.09.19 / klassik-begeistert.de
"Vorbehaltlos begeistert die entzückende amerikanische Sopranistin Heather Engebretson als Sophie [...] Ihr Gesang ist glockenhell, kraftvoll in Höhen und Tiefen"
Werther / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 18.09.19 / ft.com
"Heather Engebretson is perfection as vivacious young Sophie"
Werther / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 18.09.19 / operatoday.com
"was perfectly cast [...] adolescent enough, virginal, innocent and with a rock-solid soprano"
Les contes d'Hoffmann / Deutsche Oper Berlin / 16.12.18 / bachtrack.com
"was impressive as the four Heroines"
Siegfried / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 02.10.18 / thetimes.co.uk
"Engebretson's delightful Woodbird - part puppeteer, part acrobat, cutting through the gloom with a voice of glittering brilliance"
Siegfried / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 02.10.18 / telegraph.co.uk
"terrific representations of the [...] Woodbird (an impishly acrobatic Heather Engebretson)"
Siegfried / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 01.10.18 / theguardian.com
"Engebretson's acrobatic Woodbird wove a fine thread of light through the prevailing gloom"
Siegfried / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 01.10.18 / origin-www.whatsonstage.com
"His relationship with the fragile, stratospheric Woodbird of Heather Engebretson is an especially touching partnership of opposites"
Siegfried / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 30.09.18 / bachtrack.com
"Engebretson deserves some sort of special prize for singing Woodbird phrases while actually doing backflips in a harness, suspended high above the stage"
Siegfried / Royal Opera House Covent Garden / 29.09.18 / musicomh.com
"Engebretson is an exceptionally accomplished Woodbird, bringing precision and nuance to every note"
War Requiem / Nationaltheater Mannheim / 24.04.18 / Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung
"überragend gestaltet[]: wunderbar rein und attraktiv leuchtend, in hoch gespannter Intensität"
Così fan tutte / Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden / 04.11.15 / deropernfreund.de
"Zum Niederknien schön"
News

Great love for Puccini
Having already achieved great success with Liu, Musetta, Mimi and, most recently, Madama Butterfly, Heather Engebretson faces a further challenge with the title role in Puccini's "Manon Lescaut".Performance dates and further information can be found here:
www.stadttheater-klagenfurth.at

Entering new territory
Following her acclaimed role debuts as the Hoffmann ladies (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Salome (Lucerne and Basel) and most recently Madama Butterfly at the Frankfurt Opera, Heather Engebretson will now be Elsa in the new production of “Lohengrin” at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden (dates: 16.09., 24.09., 30.09., 03.10., 15.10., 28.10., 03.11., 30.11.2023) and enter a new dimension of Wagner roles for her.Conducted by Michael Güttler and directed by Henriette Hörnigk, she can be seen alongside Mirko Roschkowsky /Lohengrin, Khatuna Mikaberidze /Ortrud, Thomas de Vries /Telramund, and Young Doo Park /King Heinrich.
Media
Images
Photo: Aaron Cawley
Download available

Photo: Aaron Cawley
Download available

Photo: Aaron Cawley
Download available

Photo: Aaron Cawley

Photo: Aaron Cawley

Photo: Aaron Cawley

Photo: Aaron Cawley

Photo: Rebecca Fay
Download available

Photo: Rebecca Fay
Download available

Photo: Karl & Monika Förster

Photo: Bill Cooper

Photo: Paul Leclaire

Photo: Karl & Monika Forster
Video

- Sophie's aria at 58:21
Click here for the Facebook site of Heather Engebretson:
www.facebook.com/...